


Good but not good together

by Akabit



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Buffy the Vampire Slayer References, Eventual Relationships, F/M, It ends with Sterek, M/M, No one is evil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-15
Updated: 2014-06-15
Packaged: 2018-02-04 19:41:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1790884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akabit/pseuds/Akabit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles found out by accident. He was stopping by his favorite local coffee shop and happened to see Derek Hale chatting up the woman behind the counter. He immediately walked out so he could call Scott about the newest crisis.<br/>Not that he really knew what the crisis was. The coffee shop woman, whose name happened to be Amy, was a recent college grad who was living with one of her sorority sisters while she figured out what she wanted to do with her life. She was clearly evil and possibly a rat.</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>Five relationships that failed without anyone being evil and one relationship that lasts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good but not good together

Stiles found out by accident. He was stopping by his favorite local coffee shop and happened to see Derek Hale chatting up the woman behind the counter. He immediately walked out so he could call Scott about the newest crisis.  

Not that he really knew what the crisis was. The coffee shop woman, whose name happened to be Amy, was a recent college grad who was living with one of her sorority sisters while she figured out what she wanted to do with her life.  She shared her entire history when Stiles asked her what brought her to town.  She was clearly evil and possibly a rat.

Stiles asks his father to run a background check. When that turned up nothing suspicious, he bribed Danny dig for further records. Stiles did a spell to read her aura and discovered she was a kind person who was generally content with her life. All evidence pointed to Amy being exactly what she appeared to be. Her co-workers liked her because she was always willing to trade shifts. Her customers liked her because she remembered everyone's name and order.

And Derek seemed happy with her. He smiled more and seemed to relax into himself and his role as a beta in the pack.  He got a job doing delivery and installation for the appliance store next to the coffee shop.

By the time Derek and Amy have been dating for three months, Stiles realized she was in for the long con. Scott tried to gently suggest that there may be another explanation for Stiles negative reaction. Lydia bluntly told him to get over it because he was being creepy.

Just before their five month anniversary, Amy broke up with Derek.  She had gotten into graduate school across the country and didn't want a long distance relationship. She hesitantly suggested that Derek could come with her, but easily accepted it when he said his life was in Beacon Hills. Amy was completely normal.

\-----------

Stiles didn't figure out he was on a date until Amy brought them a free heart shaped cookie.  To be fair, the invitation had been a bit ambiguous. Manuel had simply asked him if he wanted to meet at the coffee shop to study for their history test.  Forty-five minutes into the 'study session', their notes hadn't been touched and Stiles was enjoying a debate about which of the Avengers was the most badass. Then Amy delivered dessert with a wink and Stiles realized he may have misinterpreted the situation.

Not this this was a bad thing. Stiles was having a good time.  Stiles had known Manuel in a vague sort of way since middle school and was beginning to realize he had previously unsuspected awesome qualities. Or, at the very least, he had good taste in men and movies. Manuel readily agreed to settle the debate with a Marvel marathon the next Friday night.

They made out during the boring parts. Before that evening, Stiles would have said there were no boring parts, but it was amazing how easily a hot guy could change his perspective.  

The Sheriff came home during a particularly dull section of The Hulk. He coughed to alert his son to his presence, but he seemed more amused than irritated with the situation.

"Um, hi dad, this is Manuel," Stiles stuttered out.

"Hi, Manuel," greeted the Sheriff offering the young man his hand. "I think we met briefly when you and Stiles were on a little league team together."

"That's right. I finished the season but then decided team sports weren't really for me." Now that he thought about it, Stiles did remember Manuel on the disastrous softball team he had joined in 6th grade.

"Good to see you again," Stiles father said warmly and excused himself to go upstairs to sleep.

As soon as he left the room, Stiles gave a shaky laugh. "I'm not sure why I was nervous about my Dad finding out that I am dating a boy."

"He seemed cool with it," Manuel agreed. "I told my parents about you before I came over."

Stiles grinned. It was nice to have something in his life that was public and easy. They had study dates at the coffee shop, 'study dates' at each others houses, and they went to see all the stupid action movies on opening night. Stiles friends approved of his relationship and went out of their way to make sure Manuel was included as much as possible.

Two weeks after Amy left, Derek was kidnapped by witches. Initially, the pack just thought he was returning to his Broody McGlareypants ways, but when Stiles realized Derek was skipping work he launched an intervention that turned into a rescue.

The month that followed was full of supernatural craziness. Stiles didn't realize until it was over that he had barely seen Manuel outside of school. Stiles had canceled or postponed half a dozen dates and Manuel was done. He was hurt that Stiles had abruptly changed his behavior and was past the point of being interested in an explanation.

Scott immediately tried to console Stiles with video games, curly fries, and promises that they would help get Manuel back. Stiles wrote Manuel an email apologizing for hurting him and expressing  the hope that they could remain friends.  

After the initial shock, Stiles was not as upset as he expected to be. He realized he just kind of fell into the first relationship that was offered to him without really thinking about what he wanted. Next time he promised himself he would be more deliberate.

Derek stopped by to thank Stiles for rallying the pack to save him.

"Its too bad that helping your pack damaged your relationship," he concluded.

"Manuel and I were never going to be long term," Stiles admitted.

"Neither were Amy and I," agreed Derek.  "But it still hurts."

"Better luck to both of us next time," said Stiles making a motion that was halfway between a toast and a flail. He didn't mention his idea to ensure a better relationship for both of them.

\------------

"There is something slightly suspicious about this," said Sheriff Stilinski as he  passed a folder to his son.   Inside was an employment application for a new deputy. Ella Feeniks had a decorated history of thirty-three years on the Chicago police force. She had survived multiple gunshot wounds, a car accident, and drowning. The picture attached to the folder didn't look a day over twenty-five.

"Werewolf," declared Stiles with confidence. "But that's no reason not to hire her."

Neither Chris Agent nor Peter Hale had heard of a Feeniks pack or any issues with omegas in Chicago so Ella was invited to town for an in person interview.

Ella was not a werewolf. Stiles watched her walk straight through the mountain ash line around vet clinic without even seeming to notice it. Then she handed a fresh baked apple pie to an almost visibly confused Deaton. She was five feet tall counting her shoes and dressed in a riot of colors.

"I made one for everyone in the local supernatural community," she explained in a musical voice. "I don't suppose you could give me directions to the Alpha's house."

"I'm headed that way next," offered Stiles picking up a book the vet was reluctantly letting him borrow. "You can follow my jeep." He didn’t know what was going on but finding Scott seemed like a good idea.

"Wonderful,” Ella fell easily into step beside Stiles as he walked to his car. “I have pies for the Alpha, the Sheriff, and Chris Argent. Am I missing anyone?”

“Uhm,” Stiles was a bit taken aback.  Confirming a list of the leaders of supernatural associated groups in Beacon Hills seemed like a bad idea.

“No matter. I made a couple extra.  I will divide them between the Alpha and the Hunter. Oh, of course, Derek Hale. I absolutely must pay respect to the surviving members of the Hale family,”  she hopped into her car and bounced in place until Stiles was ready to leave.  

Derek and the Sheriff met them at the driveway of Scott’s house.  Stiles would have suspected Deaton of calling them except that would be entirely too useful.

“How convenient,” declared Ella as she passed out pies. “You are going to have to help me with names.”

“I am John Stilinski.”  The Sheriff handed his son the pie so he could shake Ella’s hand.

"I am so happy to meet you. I heard rumors that the Sheriff of Beacon Hills was in the know and decided immediately to apply. My disguise in Chicago was wearing a tad thin and it is getting unbelievably troublesome to establish a new identity."

The Sheriff offered to move the interview up to that afternoon and Ella accepted on the condition that Stiles distribute the rest of the pies.  It took several hours for Deaton, Lydia, and Chris to certify the pies as probably safe. Still everyone, except Scott, was a little wary of eating them. Scott reported that they were delicious.

Ella performed well on her interview. The pack held a meeting and decided that there was no good reason not to hire her. When her new boss asked for proof that she was legal to work in the United States Ella presented a marriage certificate from 1821 and a birth certificate from 1798 showing that her late husband had been born in Philadelphia. Stiles father decided not to question her further.

The newest deputy quickly proved herself to be an invaluable but odd addition to the town. She would cheerfully share stories about her personal encounters with every natural and unnatural creature under the sun. She earned Deatons hatred by going through and correcting several of his books using red pen. All of her notations were written in the original language of the text.

She had a blatant crush on Derek, but never tried to seek him out.  If anything, she seemed to expect any overture on her part to be refused so she confined herself to longing glances and compliments whenever he was out of earshot. Derek seemed initially find her annoying, but gradually came to respect her vast knowledge.

The only question Ella wouldn’t answer was exactly what type of creature she was. If even half of her stories were true, she was impossibly old. She was fearless as a deputy, but stayed behind whenever the pack fought. She said she died as easily as any human.

A drunk man shot her in the chest when she answered all 911 call for possible domestic violence. Melissa McCall declared her dead on arrival to the Hospital and then hastily wheeled her into a private room and blocked the door when she started burning in a magical fire. Within minutes her body was transformed completely into ash and then the ash started to reassemble itself into a new body.

When she was completely regenerated, she was exactly the same except now she had a crush on Peter.

"All my memories stay with me forever," she explained. "But the emotions behind them are lost whenever I die." Stiles was uncertain if this was lucky or tragic.

\------------

In his first month of college, Stiles attended meetings of every club on campus whose description even slightly mentioned the supernatural. Unfortunately Team Jacob was a joke and the Fantastical Reality Club was devoted live action role playing. The Wiccan Sisterhood appears to contain several powerful spellcasters, but was NOT welcoming to a male spark.  Stiles had almost given up when he met Renata Bernard at the first meeting of the Muggle Society. She was the human-born daughter of an Alpha from Louisiana. They bonded instantly over the foibles of being human members of a pack.

Derek cautiously encouraged Stiles to build a friendship with the woman as a precursor to a possible alliance between the packs.  Peter thought he remembered Talia once speaking favorably of Renata’s Grandfather. Stiles took their words into consideration, but really he decided to befriend the other human for himself.  Renata was funny, nerdy, and her dorm was conveniently located in the same building as Stiles. Most of his new college friendships were based on less.

After a couple of months, Stiles realized he kind of wanted to ask her out so he did. Renatta seemed uncertain, but agreed to a casual date. Dating didn’t change much about their interactions and Stiles wondered why she was so hesitant.

“Do you want to be dating me?” he asked while walking back to her dorm room from the dining hall.

“I really like you,” she responded which didn’t exactly answer the question. After a couple of steps she asked, “When is your Alpha going to give you the Bite?”

Stiles was startled. “He's not.”

Surprisingly, Renatta looked pleased. “That is wonderful. I decided to wait until I earned my degree.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” Stiles responded.  He knew that human-born children of werewolves were typically offered the Bite when they turned eighteen. Stiles hadn’t realized the Renatta had only temporarily rejected it.

“I wanted to be able to live on my own and have a normal college experience before going back to fully join my pack," she explained. As they approached the crowded student lounge, she changed topics but the conversation left Stiles feeling like he was missing something.

For whatever reason, it did fix their relationship problems. Renatta seemed more relaxed and started sharing details about her family. When she choose not to go home for Thanksgiving, Stiles invited her to spend it with him.

Stiles enjoyed introducing Renata to the pack. She was respectful to Scott, polite to Derek, and snarky to Cora and Peter. It was easy to see that she was comfortable with pack hierarchies. When she called her family on Thanksgiving day, she introduced Stiles to her cousin who was a human spark.  Stiles learned more in one conversation with Remy then he had learned in years from Deaton.

Over spring break, Stiles and Renata flew down to Louisiana to meet her pack. He was fascinated to see how a stable family pack functioned. They offered the McCall pack a treaty of mutual protection and friendship which Scott accepted after Derek pronounced the terms to be more than fair.

Stiles and Renata just fit together. They always enjoyed each others company and Stiles was starting to plan for their long term future when he realized there could never be one.

"When would you like to visit Louisiana this summer?" Renata asked as she packed up her dorm room at the end of spring term. She was going to be staying in San Francisco for most of the summer to do an internship in a cellular biology lab. Stiles had gotten a summer job in Beacon Hills but they had plans at visit each other on alternate weekends.

"Uhm, August would probably be best," suggested Stiles as he pulled out his calendar so they could start comparing dates.

"I am glad you fit into the pack,” Renata said absently. “Being bonded with my family will make learning control much easier when we accept the Bite.

"What?" asked Stiles. "I’m not going to become a werewolf."

Renata looked confused. "Why not?"

Stiles shrugged. "I like being human. Why do you think I am going to ask you Mother for the Bite?"

"You said your Alpha isn't going to turn you,” Renata said patiently as if this was the only possible explanation. “When you first asked me out I didn't think we could work because I figured you would want us to join your pack. Most of the time the woman to joins the man's pack, but I agree there is no reason to be bound by sexist traditions.”

Stiles didn’t know where to start. Renata seemed to have completely dismissed his decision to remain human. “I’m not sure about joining your pack,” he began.

“Well we can’t be omegas,” said Renata with mild annoyance. “I guess it is probably too early to be talking about these things. You don't have to worry about transitioning in a stable pack. It is way different than what you saw when Isaac took the Bite.  I wouldn't want to take the Bite from an inexperienced Alpha either.”

“But I don’t want the Bite from any Alpha,” Stiles insisted.

Renata looked at him with blank incomprehension. “But then you will stay human.”

“I don’t want the Bite,” Stiles repeated.

“Why?” Renata didn’t seem to understand how anyone could choose long term humanity.

“Because I like being human,” Stiles didn’t understand why he had to justify his decision.

“Well I’m sure you’ll change your mind when you get to know my family better.”

“No I won’t." Stiles was starting to get angry. He felt that a fundamental thing about himself was a temporary annoyance to his girlfriend.

Renata thought for several minutes then seemed to arrive at a solution. "I guess you could be the pack spark. Remy would be happy to be allowed to take the Bite." Renata warmed to the solution as she continued talking. "I should have thought of it before but I didn't want to insult you by implying you wouldn't be welcome as a full pack member."  Derek had always said that humans were full members of the pack and it would never occur to Scott stratify his friends.

Renata and Stiles talked about humanity and the Bite several more times over the next couple of weeks. Stiles was never satisfied with her attitudes or answers and Renata was getting bored with having the same discussion repeatedly. They were never going to agree.

The relationship was over. Stiles knew it would be simple to patch things up temporarily, but they had found the issue that would eventually, inevitably break them up.  He decided to act early so he could try to salvage the friendship.

\--------

Derek met Ryan when the latest big bad led them to the Jungle during spring break of Stiles junior year.  If the pack was slightly surprised that Derek decided to pick up a one night stand during an investigation, nobody said anything.  Stiles and Danny privately agreed that if Ryan had approached either of them they would have done exactly the same thing.  He was a good dancer with an uncanny resemblance to Chris Evans.

Derek never introduced Ryan to the pack, but they saw them together occasionally. They also occasionally saw Ryan with other guys. Stiles figured that if anyone deserved some uncomplicated fun it was Derek Hale.

Two months later, Derek was broody and silent at a pack meeting. A couple of years ago this would have been normal but he had been doing much better lately.

"What's up Derek?" Asked Stiles after the meeting.

"I broke up with Ryan," Derek answered.

Stiles bit back his immediate instinct to question if they had ever been dating in the first place. "What happened?"

"I realized that I can't do casual relationships." Derek clasped his hands and looked fixedly at the wall. "I asked Ryan if he wanted to be exclusive and he said no. I had to end it."   The beta sounded grim instead of angry.

Stiles was proud of him for making healthy relationship choices. He patted Derek awkwardly on the back. "This calls for ice cream and action movies. Come on we can overdose on junk food and not talk about the fact that all men are pigs."

"We're both men," Derek pointed out with a small smile.

"Irrelevant," Stiles declared.

"And Ryan isn't really a bad guy. We just want different things."

"Also irrelevant. You can be logical about this starting tomorrow. Tonight we wallow."

\--------

Wallowing was kind of fun when you weren't the one who was heartbroken. Perhaps heartbroken was too strong of a word. Derek seemed more disappointed than hurt and at least half of his anger was towards himself.

They watched all three Star Wars movies. Stiles refused to acknowledge anything except the original trilogy and some brilliant fan fiction as canon. Between the first two movies, they ordered pizza and before the third they made an ice cream run.  The end of the Return of the Jedi found both of them more than half asleep with Stiles head on Derek's shoulder.

Stiles was completely content with the basic cuddling concept but though their positions could be optimized for improved comfort.

"Scoot down," he slurred while ineffectively trying to shift Derek into a more optimal sleep position. If he was awake, Stiles would have acknowledged there probably was no way for two grown men to sleep on even the Stilinski's generously sized couch without waking up sore. His sleep drugged mind was determined to try.

Stiles ignored the first couple brushes of lips across his hair and forehead. It was gentle, nice, and fit well into his dozing day dreams. But the kisses moved towards his lips and Derek's hands moved to areas that could not be dismissed as platonic.

"No," Stiles said while gently moving Derek's hands up to his back.

"Hmm," murmured Derek. He nuzzled Stiles cheek then buried his lips in Stiles neck.

"Stop Derek," Stiles repeated and reluctantly lifted himself off the other man's chest.  His movement roused Derek.

"Sorry," he said.

"Don't apologize," Stiles responded with a small smile. "If I thought you really meant it, I would be totally in favor of continuing."

"I have terrible timing," agreed Derek. He looked embarrassed but not regretful.

"Yep. So here's the plan. Take a couple weeks to be awake and not on the rebound," suggested Stiles. "Think about if this is something you really want and I will do the same." Stiles already knew what his decision would be, but he thought plausible deniability may be important to saving the friendship if Derek decided against him.

"And if I decide to go for it?” The question was more flirtatious than serious.

"Then I expect to be wooed, Derek," said Stiles with a smirk. "I have seen your charming ways. Sweep me off my feet wolfy boy."

Derek chuckled and excused himself to go home. The hug he gave Stiles at the door may not have completely conformed to the rules. Stiles decided he would allow it and grinned all the way up the stairs to bed.

For the next ten days, Stiles tried to pretend that nothing unusual was happening. This plan was complicated by Derek staring at a Stiles whenever they were together. Lydia's smirk indicated she found the situation amusing, but poor oblivious Scott thought Stiles and Derek were fighting. He ordered them to go to coffee together one evening to work things out.

When Stiles arrived at the coffee shop, Derek was already sitting at Stiles favorite table with two drinks and a large slice of chocolate cake. Stiles had no intention of having a serious and potentially painful relationship talk in public so he started chatting idly about pack gossip.

"So Peter seems have outdone himself in his latest plan."  Peter had been delighted with the idea of a functionally immortal girlfriend. He appeared to see the fact that their relationship reset every year or so as an added bonus.

“I think he enjoys pursuing her after every death,” Derek said. Peter’s efforts to resecure Ella’s affections were at best slightly creepy.

"I think if someone got me a book of rapey love spells I would run screaming," Stiles agreed. “But Ella seemed to like it.  She gushed to my dad all through lunch yesterday about how it has been almost three hundred years since she had a chance to read that dialect of Romanian,"

Derek shook his head in disbelief. "Chris will be relieved to hear she is over her thing for him."

“Actually, I think Chris was enjoying how much the situation annoyed Peter,” Stiles mused. “He wasn’t discouraging her attentions.”

“I think I would like a more stable relationship,” Derek said.

"It seems to work for them," Stiles said with a shrug. A brief silence descended.

"My interest in you isn't a new thing," Derek began. Stiles was startled with the apparent change of subject then realized that Derek thought there was an undercurrent to their earlier conversation. "I felt guilty for finding you attractive when you were still in high school."

Stiles grinned, "I wouldn't have minded. Back then I thought you were hot but unfortunately straight." As a teenager, Stiles had actually been slightly confused by his attraction to Derek, but he was too busy dealing with an endless string of supernatural disasters to worry about it.

"I tend to be attracted to more women than men," Derek confessed. He seemed to expect a negative reaction.

"No problem," Stiles wasn't shocked by this news. "I tend to have these long epic crushes that are periodically interrupted by getting with someone else."

Derek’s face relaxed and he slouched against his chair. "That doesn't sound like the healthiest pattern."

"I have been thinking about breaking it by going out with the object of my current endless crush." Stiles was going for subtle and sly.  He missed by a mile.

"As long as that means me I am totally on board." Clearly the time for serious discussions were over. On to the flirting.

"Yep that's you." Stiles favored Derek with an over the top leer. Derek raised his chin and smirked as he widened his knees and slouched further in the chair.  Stiles did not let the distracting sight stop him from talking. “I was going to ask if you wanted to come out to movie with me.”

“Nope,” Derek said smugly. He was rejecting the plan not the relationship. “I have the latest X-men movie back at my place."

"Awesome." Stiles hadn't managed to see it yet because it had come out right before finals. They worked together to clear the table then drove to Derek's loft.

Upon entering, Stiles saw several of his favorite snacks sitting innocently on the table next to the couch with the shrink wrapped DVD propped up by a bag of chips. Someone had planned ahead.

Stiles lounged on the couch while Derek queued up the movie.  He didn't even offer token resistance when Derek manhandled him into his arms before pressing play. This time he had no intention of stopping anything the older man tried to start. But laying against Derek's chest was comfortable. He was having trouble sleeping in his childhood room due to unpleasant sleepless associations.

Stiles woke in the morning fully clothed in an unfamiliar bed. His phone was ringing on the bedside table.

"Sorry, Dad," he said upon answering. "I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"That's alright son. Derek called to tell me where you were." Stiles couldn't imagine how that conversation had gone, but was grateful that his dad didn't seem inclined to question his choices. "I was just calling to confirm we were still on for brunch."

Stiles looked at the clock on his phone. If he hurried, he would have time for a quick shower before meeting his dad at their favorite diner. Then a freshly washed Derek walked into the room in nothing but an undersized towel.

"Can we delay by half an hour? The phone woke me up." His mind was rapidly forming plans of what to do with the extra time.

"No problem," replied his father. "I'll see you and Derek at nine." The Sheriff disconnected before Stiles could protest the additional change of plans.

"I used up all the hot water," announced Derek smugly. "You are going to have to wait at least 30 minutes before you can take a shower."

"Then it is very convenient that I asked for extra time before brunch." Stores knew that Derek had overheard the entire conversation with his father.

Derek merely grunted in response and removed his towel to start drying his hair. He pretended to be completely oblivious to the effect his nudity was having on the younger man. Two could play that game. Stiles stripped off his clothes with more efficiency than elegance.  He walked over to Derek's dresser and bent over to open drawers until he found the one containing Derek's shirts.

"You're buffer than me, but I'm taller and tend to wear my clothing a bit looser," Stiles commented casually. He straightened up and turned around holding up a shirt so that it only covered his chest. "Do you think this will fit?"

To Stiles immense satisfaction, Derek actually growled. He stalked across the room, pushed Stiles into the dresser, and meet him halfway in a searing kiss. Stiles reveled in the feeling of solid muscle pushing him into the wood and a skilled tongue sliding between his lips. His plan had worked even better than expected. Derek pulled the shirt from between their bodies and moved his hands down to grope Stiles ass.  Apparently that was a thing. One Stiles was eager to explore further when they didn't have to rush.  Now was a time for messy blowjobs followed by a shower. He tried to sink down to kiss a path to a particularly interesting and interested part of Derek's anatomy. Derek resisted until he realized Stiles goal then he spread his legs and guided Stiles head with gentle hands.

Stiles knew it is was bit unusual, but he really liked giving blowjobs. Honestly, he had always had a bit of an oral fetish. He was equally romantically attracted to both men and women, but he prefered sex with men because he loved cocks.  Derek's was the perfect size. It was big enough to feel heavy and substantial in his mouth but not so large that he feared for the future of his ass. The little bumps on the bottom of the crown encouraged his tongue to go further and explore the veins on the shaft. The licks were as much for his benefit as Derek's but they seemed to be working.

Stiles gently massaged the part of Derek's shaft that didn't fit in his mouth both to provide extra stimulation and limit the depth of Derek's thrusts. Gagging was not sexy. He sped up his licks and bobbed his head.  It took less time than he expected for Derek's moans to increase in in volume. Derek warned him he was getting close so Stiles could pull off and stand up to rub both of their cocks together with his spit dampened hand.  Derek reattached his mouth to Stiles lips and groaned his way through his orgasm. His semen provided the additional slickness Stiles needed to come less than a minute later. They kissed lazily through the afterglow.

"I think I have earned myself a shower," announced Stiles.

“There is room for two,” declared Derek “and not enough hot water to wash separately.”

They were very clean from carefully hand washing and only a couple of minutes late when they joined the Sheriff at brunch.  He eyed their damp hair suspiciously but didn’t comment.  From that moment forward, he seemed to take Derek and Stiles relationship as a done deal. The Sheriff never questioned the fact that Stiles spent the rest of the summer basically living at Derek’s loft and he always invited Derek to family events.  In fact, the only person surprised by the abrupt appearance of a stable romantic relationship was Scott.

It wasn’t a perfect relationship.  Derek worried that Stiles was more attracted to his body than his personality and Stiles kept waiting for their respective issues to clash.  Occasionally, they argued or accidentally hurt each, but that resulted in more make up sex than harm. They made the long distance thing work when Stiles had to go back to San Francisco for his Senior year.  After Stiles graduated, they moved in together.  

Twenty years later, when it was time to give their oldest child the relationship lecture Stiles began. “Some relationships end because someone is evil, but most of the time there are just difference that make people incompatible. Not all good people are good together."

 

**Author's Note:**

> I love the troupe of Derek's sweeties always ending up evil which means I had to write it backwards. My head works in odd ways. Thank you for reading. 
> 
> Anika


End file.
